A teenager who stabbed his former friend to death outside a 16th birthday party told the Old Bailey he did it “to protect” himself.

The 16-year-old boy stabbed Charlie Kutyauripo twice outside the 100-strong bash in Ashton Playing Fields, Woodford Bridge, on January 9 at 9.40pm.

Charlie, also 16, died less than an hour later in Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with murder.

The court heard how Charlie, of Collier Row Lane, Collier Row, and the defendant used to be friends.

“You went round his house, met his mum, met his brother,” prosecutor Louis Mably QC told the jury.

But the pair fell out on social media at the end of last year.

The boy said: “He [Charlie] asked me if I was still friends with the Hainault boys and then we gave each other verbals.

“I called him names, I called him a p*******e and stuff like that.”

The court heard that Charlie’s friends – known as the Hainault boys – had allegedly beaten up the defendant twice, and he had twice carried a knife “for protection”.

The boy said he knew that if he saw Charlie “there would be a confrontation”.

The Old Bailey was told that on the night of the party the defendant had taken a 15cm kitchen knife from the drawer under the sink in his house.

The court heard he arrived with four friends – who were not invited – shortly after 9.30pm, and was standing outside the sports centre when Charlie came out.

Mr Mably quizzed the boy on the final confrontation.

He said: “You squared up to each other, there was shouting ... he pushed you and you started walking away.

“There was something that Charlie didn’t know about,” Mr Mably asked the youth. The boy replied: “The knife that I had in my pocket.”

Mr Mably continued: “When you were walking away from him he still didn’t know you had a knife and then as we have seen you stabbed him in the chest.”

The jury was once again shown CCTV footage which shows the defendant turn around and stab Charlie.

He responded: “He [Charlie] was following me and he was trying to take something out. I thought it was a knife.”

The prosecutor asked: “If there was a problem why didn’t you just threaten him with it?”

The boy said: “In my head he was walking towards me, he was moving his hands towards his waist, I thought he was going to hurt me with something.”

“You didn’t have to kill him, you didn’t have to stab him in the chest,” Mr Mably told the court.

The CCTV footage also shows the boy stab Charlie again, in the shoulder.

The defendant said: “I went for him, he dropped and stood back up. At the time I just saw him stand back up. I just lost control.”

The court heard Charlie staggered to the entrance of the sports centre where he collapsed, while the defendant ran to Woodford Green.

He was eventually arrested in Margate, Kent, on February 1, after giving officers a false name.

The boy told the jury he fled because he was scared of the Hainault gang.

He denies the charges. The trial continues.